Scribe Session Series: Akili Smith

Akili Smith discusses his four years in Cincinnati, battling drinking and depression and now taking responsibility for his shortcomings while teaching others to avoid his same mistakes.(Photo: The Enquirer)

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The Scribe Session podcast series catching up with former Bengals from the 90s and early 2000s continues with the fourth edition to see what they are up to now, hear stories from old days, opinions on what went wrong (and occasionally right) as well as the challenges in the changing landscape of post-football life.

This week I chat with quarterback Akili Smith, a centerpiece of the The Lost Decade and third overall pick of the 1999 draft. Smith spent four seasons in Cincinnati going 3-14 as a starter, completing 46 percent of his passes with five touchdowns to 13 interceptions.

These days he helps run two football player preparation organizations, Akili Smith Training as well as Combine5 training and is a high school football coach in San Diego.

Smith discusses being depressed while with the Bengals and battling drinking, excessive partying in the offseason. These days he says he'll talk about anything -- and does -- from the parties to his biggest mistake to seeing Johnny Manziel make the exact same poor choices he did.

Mostly, though, Smith talks about taking responsibility for how his NFL career flopped. And how he changed from finger-pointing to growing up while accepting his own failure.

"Was just a realization about five, six years ago. At one point I said, I'm about to stop drinking, I'm about to get married, start a family and that type of stuff. I started doing some reading and trying to fix my mind before I ended up dead somewhere or in jail somewhere. It just clicked. Next thing you know I woke up and I'm looking in the mirror and saying my whole career is my fault. It's nobody's fault but my fault. Even if it didn't work out in Cincinnati if I would have kept my nose clean for four years in Cincinnati I could have possibly gone somewhere else and played for another team."

Smith went on to tell stories about his disastrous first season, the first time he realized he screwed up holding out and why he decided to include himself in the concussion lawsuit.

Clearly, Smith has turned a corner, and it shows with his honesty throughout the 35-minute podcast which includes moments like this discussing his bad offseason habits.

"At the time our leadership wasn't as strong as it needed to be. It wasn't where it needed to be as far as the leadership was concerned. We did have guys like Willie Anderson and Takeo Spikes. Sometimes I would listen to them then sometimes I flat out wouldn't listen because I was so depressed about my NFL career and the way that things had transpired."

Tremain Mack consoles Akili Smith after a fumble in the final minutes of a 2000 game.(Photo: The Enquirer)

Keep an eye out over the coming weeks as the series continues.

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